Ryan Smyth celebrates while referee Francois St.Laurent demonstrates to partner Paul Devorski how to make a goal signal.

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Bit of an odd game in Denver Saturday afternoon, a fair bit of ebb and flow that pretty much evened out over the 60 minutes that inevitably stretched to 65 and then the shootout. Edmonton Oilers had the better of the first period, much the worse of the second, then bounced back with a pretty solid third that tied it up and could have won it. That they didn’t can be attributed to referee Paul Devorski, who made a bizarre “no goal no penalty” call for Sam Gagner’s incursion into the Avs crease in which he was a) pushed in and b) had absolutely no effect on the goalie, who was about four feet out of position for the second shot in any event. Instead, that shot off the stick of a snakebitten Ales Hemsky, was waved off in a decisive moment of wrong-headedness by the man in stripes.

If you think Oiler fans have reason to complain about the call which arguably cost their team a point, then fans of the Flames, Kings, Sharks, and Coyotes have a way bigger cause for complaint: the blunder just as arguably was worth TWO points for the Avs, turning what might have been a regulation loss into a shootout win.For games with so much riding on them, fans of all teams should expect a better calibre of officiating than was on display today.

Once they made it (with a little assistance) to the shootout, the Avs were full value for the bonus point, winning it in the minimum four total shots as they ran their season record to 8-1 in the skills competition. This aptitude might ultimately pave their way to the post-season, even as it will do them absolutely no good once they get there.

From an Oilers perspective it was an OK game, with no great or terrible performances and all players grading out somewhere in the mid-range. The Pipe Line looked after the scoring, with Ryan Smyth making a guest appearance on RNH and Eberle’s flank during a line change to pot the first Oiler tally and Taylor Hall getting the late tying marker on a spectacular second effort. Meanwhile the HOG Line (how appropriate for Brier Week!) of Hemsky, Omark and Gagner was rolling around the Avs net in the late stages. Besides the disallowed goal, Omark found iron after one nifty three-way passing play and Hemsky very nearly ended things early in OT with a brilliant rush.

While they trailed by small margins on the shot clock and scoring chance meter, the Oilers carried play territorially, forcing 28 faceoffs in the Colorado end to just 13 in their own. Alas, they won fewer O-zone draws (7 of the 28 ) than the Avs did (8 of the 13), completely wasting that advantage. The Oil were an atrocious 0 for 8 on special teams draws.

#4 Taylor Hall,6 – Struggled for much of the game (three giveaways) but worked his tail off as usual, and finally figured out a way to score the tying goal on an incredible second effort, crashing the net, finding the rebound with his back skate, kicking it up to himself and somehow sweeping it home from a bad angle while being taken down by two Avs defenders. One of the goals of the year in my books.

#5 Ladi Smid, 4 – Top pairing had a rare off night, getting thumped by shot and scoring chance metrics. Smid was out for both Avs goal, making a borderline error on the first and a significant one on the second when he was slow to read the danger man and beaten to the loose rebound. Battled back after that, leading Oilers with four hits and two blocked shots.Took a couple for the team, as usual.

#6 Ryan Whitney, 5 – Led Oilers in ice time with over 23 minutes, did some good things, but got lit up defensively a couple of times, especially on the 2-1 goal when Milan Hejduk walked him.

#10 Shawn Horcoff, 5 – Rang iron early in the game, then nearly stuffed one home in overtime. Struggled on the faceoff dot (8/20=40%), especially on special teams. Hit the inside of the post with an excellent wrist shot in the opening minutes.

#14 Jordan Eberle, 6 – Led all Oiler forwards in ice time with 21:39. Five Oiler forwards hit the 20-minute mark in this 65-minute affair, with the reunited Pipe Line being 1-2-3. Not something that would have happened even a month ago. Eberle assisted on both Oiler goals and was somewhat at fault on one of Colorado’s markers when he “fell” and opened a lane for the eventual goal scorer. I kind of thought the tattooed dude with the blowgun behind the Avs bench might have had something to do with that.

#15 Nick Schultz, 6 – Oilers’ top defenceman to my eye. Saw his role increase significantly as he moved up to a top four role with Whitney and had a nice stabilizing influence, as did Whitney on Schultz for that matter after the Peckham adventures of Thursday night. Played a team high 33 shifts, and was one of five Oiler defenders to play over 20 minutes as Renney spread the workload around a little more evenly. He’s as smart as he is subtle. Brings more to the table offensively than expected. Did benefit from extreme zone starts (10-O; 2-D).

#16 Darcy Hordichuk, incomplete – Hard to make much of an impact in four shifts.

#20 Eric Belanger, 5 – Generated three shots playing on a line with Jones and a bunch of wingers named Hordichuk – Ales Hordichuk, Taylor Hordichuk, Jordan Hordichuk, and even Darcy Hordichuk a time or two. His line got scored on, though it wasn’t his fault. Three shots, drew a penalty. Was the best of Oilers sorry crew of faceoff men, breaking even at 4/8=50%.

#23 Linus Omark, 5 – Offence good, defence bad. Really got victimized in his own end a time or two, failing to pick up his check or in one case, being stripped of the puck right in front of his own net. Did some nice things offensively, including a couple of real subtle short passes. Made a beauty play in the neutral zone to get the puck to Hemsky at speed leading to the goal-that-wasn’t. Also fired a great shot off the post.

#25 Andy Sutton, 4 – Took over for Peckham on the third pairing, and marked the occasion by taking both Oilers penalties.

#28 Ryan Jones, 5 – His ability to switch wings allowed members of the Hordy Committee to play their natural position when they took an extra shift. On one such he took a nifty feed from Hemsky and wired a real good shot from the circle that forced Varlamov into a tough save. Wouldn’t mind seeing that outside shot a little more often.

#35 Nikolai Khabibulin, 6 – Oilers have now won just one of his last 16 starts, but it’s tough to hang this particular defeat on the netminder. (Unless you want to talk shootouts, that is.) This game wouldn’t have made it that far without a number of big stops on breakaways and point-blank situations, including one with two minutes left in the third that got the Oilers to overtime. I thought he looked a little weak on the first Avs goal that surprised him from a bad angle.

#37 Lennart Petrell, 5 – Stepped up to the third line with Horcoff and Smyth, and acquitted himself fairly well. His strengths — size, physicality, defensive presence — are a welcome addition on any line.

#44 Corey Potter, 5 – Nominally on the third pairing but still logged a solid 22 minutes. I wasn’t totally sold on his game, but he earned at least a passing grade with a spectacular shot block off Landeskog in overtime.

#58 Jeff Petry, 5 – Wasn’t the first pairing’s best day, but both still had their moments. He had a real bad one just before the first goal, when he couldn’t gain centre for the shoot-in and got stripped of the puck as Oilers were scrambling to change up. Made a real good play on the goal-that-wasn’t, and his reaction to the call was something to see. His size, mobility, and increasingly take-charge approach has become a staple of the blue.

#83 Ales Hemsky, 6 – Was absolutely robbed of a well-deserved goal by an atrocious call. He’d already been playing pretty well before that, but took his game to another level thereafter. Made a great rush in overtime which nearly ended things. If there were any justice, it would have.

#89 Sam Gagner, 5 – On a night every single Oiler took more faceoffs in Colorado’s end than Edmonton’s, Gagner was particularly favoured with an 8:3 split. Yet he wound up with the worst Corsi rating on the club (-8). Like all the Oiler centres, struggled with offensive zone draws, winning just 2 of 8. Did contribute to the shoulda-been-tying-goal; even though he was the one who was tabbed with the “interference”, I’m not going to dock him for that, in fact I’m going to credit him for making a good play driving the net.

#93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 5 – A bit of a strange game, lots of good, lots of bad. The most good seemed to happen when he kept things simple, like his low shot that created a rebound for Smyth to jam home. Why try to thread the pass when the shot can accomplish the same result while creating a little chaos in the process? I thought he was poor in the second period, had a few weak shifts, took some bad routes to the puck, seemed to be playing more chase than anticipating. Bounced back in the third, but never did have the jump he displayed on Thursday. Stunk on faceoffs (2/11=18%).

#94 Ryan Smyth, 6 – Banged home his 19th of the season in classic Smytty fashion, driving hard to the net, finding the puck in the crowd, kicking it up to his stick, jamming it home. Led the Oil with five shots including at least one classic Smytty wraparound and one classic Smytty no-hope slapshot from the left-wing boards. Every time I see that shot I have memories of him beating Andy Moog with it in double OT in Dallas in `97, so it`s all good. If one of those no-hopers was to go in his whole career, that was the time for it.

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